OECD Competition Policies and their Influence
on Multilateral Communities

Abstract

　

International organizations like OECD care not only the problem of market access, but also pay increasing attention to competition policy. During May 1996, the Joint Group on Trade and Competition was established in OECD. The main goal of this joint group was to harmonize the trade policy and competition policy. The Joint Group finished their job in 1998. It has proposed many reports, as the basis of recommendations for the Council. The sub-bodies of OECD analyze competition laws and policies of each members systematically and then proposed to the Council. According to these proposals, the Council made recommendations. Though the recommendations are not binding, they do have influence on the competition policies of members. The most important recommendations relevant to competition policy are：

1. the Recommendation of the Council concerning Action against Restrictive Business Practices Affecting International trade Including those Involving Multinational Enterprises (C (78) 133/FINAL),
2. the Recommendation of The Council on Competition Policy and Exempted or Regulated Sectors (C (79) 155/FINAL),
3. the Recommendation of The Council for Co-operation between Member Countries in Areas of Potential Conflict between Competition and Trade Policies (C (86) 65/FINAL),
4. the Revised Recommendation of The Council Concerning Co-operation between Member Countries On Anti-competition Practices affecting International Trade (C(95)130/FINAL),
5. the Recommendation of The Council concerning the Application of Competition Laws and Policy to Patent and Know-how Licensing Agreement, and the Recommendation of The Council concerning Effective Actin against Hard Core Cartels (C(98)35/FINAL).

Chinese Taipei is actively applying for an observer status in the Committee of Competition Law and Policy to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We have to know the competition policies of OECD and find out whether our competition laws and policies are compatible with OECD recommendations. In this report, we concentrate on four issues of competition policy regime. They are cartel, merger, monopoly or dominant position and the regulation or deregulation. We summarize and analyze OECD’s competition policies according to the official documents of OECD and make proper suggestions to the competent authority.

Although OECD recommendations are not binding, members can use OECD as a forum to share experiences, to discuss common questions, and to find the ways and methods which could be eventually accepted by all members. That is why recommendations of OECD often forms the basis of agreements or regulations of other multilateral organizations. OECD is the channel of communication for members. Through OECD forum, members can talk without pressure, and the tensions and potential conflicts between members could be released. This is why OECD is sometimes preferable to other international organizations .